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Retriev=
ing
the Call
Isaiah
29:13-16;
1
Corinthians 1: 20-31
The
lectionary for today is centered on the Baptism of our Lord. We are not goi=
ng
to use the traditional liturgies for that occasion this morning. Somehow I want to get in behind th=
at
theology to something I believe bothers Protestantism in our day – the
loss of the experience of
“call.”
Without
it, we become mere members of a church. It is like belonging to the Rotary
Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Country Club, the Elks, or the numerous other
possibilities of joining, all of which seem to be declining in our society.=
Is
it because we are looking for more meaning, a way for our lives to lived wi=
th
passion, something or someone that draws us beyond ourselves?
Today
we elect church leadership – elders and deacons. Is it anything other
than an annoyance that we must remain after worship to do this task which w=
ill
be done efficiently and with little notice? To an onlooker it will appear t=
o be
a well-greased operation. I once knew of a congregation that nominated at l=
east
two people for each position. In the weeks leading up to the election they =
were
to tell the congregation what their qualifications were for the particular
ministry to which they were nominated, why they wished to serve in a leader=
ship
capacity. And then the congregation did real voting on the basis of what th=
ey
had learned about the candidates. But mercy, hardly any congregation would
think of doing such a process; we might hurt someone’s feelings! So we
will do the usual election today and I will have to coax someone to make the
usual motions.
This
is not to cast shadows on the persons we will elect this day. Quite to the contrary, the Nominat=
ing
Committee of this congregation has spent a great deal of time in discussion=
and
making contacts, to assure that they obtain leadership that is committed;
willing to risk change; loyal to this church; bringing skills so necessary =
to
this time of transition. But what about the rest of us – is this
congregational meeting today a mere annoyance that will get us a bit later =
to
our favorite place for brunch?
I
am not trying to be cynical! The Church of Jesus Christ needs to retrieve a
sense of “the call.”
When I was examined for ordination in New Castle Presbytery, the eig=
ht
hour oral examination began with the question: “Mr. Fuerstenau, will =
you
share with us your call to ministry; when it came to you, what it meant to =
you,
what challenges that call presented to you, and what feelings you had around
that call?” That was not difficult for me to respond to. It was somet=
hing
that was talked about in our household. My parents, especially my mother, h=
ad
numerous calls to ministry as laypersons in the church. It was true of my
grandparents and aunts and uncles. It was not about membership; it was about
the call to ministry in the church and in the world. I did have one grandmo=
ther
who was the strictest of Methodists and could not imagine anyone being call=
ed
to be a Presbyterian! But that, of course, is not the call. It is a call to
discipleship in Jesus Christ.
One
of themes woven through all of scripture, and experiences of the people of
scripture concerns the experience of “the call.” Whenever I thi=
nk
my life is over, I remember that Abraham was more than twenty years beyond =
my
present age when God called him to leave everything and guided him to the l=
and of
Palestine to form a new nation for God; a nation that would know God and se=
rve
God. Those wonderful and poignant narratives in the Old Testament woven aro=
und
the life of Abraham and his family are among the best stories in all of the
history of the human pilgrimage. The stories around his sons Isaac and Ishm=
ael
reach their sticky tentacles into the 21st century with power, in
Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Jordan.
You read the results of those family stories every day in the newspa=
per!
And
then there was Moses, a fugitive in the desert, who encountered the call of=
God
from a bush that burned and was not consumed. Moses leading the people of
Israel out of Egypt became a defining moment in the history of the Jewish
people and the history of humankind. It became powerful imagery that fueled=
the
civil rights movement of the 20th century.
There
were distinctive calls to the Old Testament prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah. W=
hen
I read the call of Isaiah I imagine a place much like this sanctuary! Then
there is the call of Jesus to a particular and peculiar ministry that comes
with his baptism. He sorts out that call for forty days in the wilderness.
Imagine that! It was that imp=
ortant
to Jesus that he get his life and call right! And then Jesus called numerous
women and men to ministry.
No
theological education; less educated than anyone in this space today- but t=
hey
carried the gospel to the ends of the known earth!
My
sixth grade Sunday School teacher was a woman with a sense of call her whole
life. She tried to enlarge our concept of God by teaching us that God was
omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent! My older sisters just rolled their =
eyes
when I reported all of this at the dinner table. But what I gained from her=
was
a sense of God’s very practical presence in my daily life and that
intelligence could be blended with faith with integrity. She called me from=
her
hospital bed when she was in the final stages of cancer. She told me what s=
he
was learning in the process of dying, about the sovereignty of God and how =
to
give the control of her life into God’s keeping. She was not afraid, =
and
she closed the conversation by saying, “Think of me experiencing my n=
ext
stage of learning.”
Consider
your own call, Paul urges. Paul names this living under the sense of the ca=
ll
of God, the foolishness or the folly of God. Who are we that God would call=
us
for some of the most important work in creation? I once asked a young man who worked for one of =
the
most powerful firms on Wall Street,
“After
days of grueling commutes and long and tedious hours, what moves you to spe=
nd
your Sunday mornings with a group of third graders?” and he did. He w=
as
there in that room with them, Sunday after Sunday. His response was that he
struggled every day of the week to do his job with integrity and honesty. A=
nd
that Sunday mornings with those kids was not a struggle. It was the most
important thing he did in his week.
The
wisdom of this world is not concerned with the redemption of the world; it =
is
concerned with winning; it is concerned with only minor improvements in the
human community so that we can hang on to what we have and get even more! T=
he
wisdom of this world is not concerned with being made into the likeness of
Jesus the Christ. Indeed, that does look like weakness and foolishness to t=
his
world.
If
we take seriously this living under the sense of the call of God, who do we
become? We do not need to become religious nuts, as my mother would say! We become witnesses that God =
is
able to take hold of any life, no matter how twisted or defeated, no matter=
how
ordinary or special and make it count for the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we=
end
up looking weak or foolish in the eyes of the world, that does not mean we =
lack
intelligence or that we are not competent human beings. For our competence is in love; our
competence is in working for justice and the dignity of all human beings; o=
ur
intelligence is in knowing the value of walking humbly with our God. Our si=
mple
“yes” to the call of God through this church or any church conn=
ects
us with the larger voices of the universe, and carries our spirits to great
heights. Let us be called to become huge spirits that see with the eyes of
Christ, love with the heart of Christ, think with the mind of Christ. Amen.=